Wake that answer up in the morning.
Breakfast Club Morning.
Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. We got the brother Russell Fletcher. Welcome, Brother, Welcome.
I appreciate you guys actually invite me to the show and giving me the opportunity to come in.
It's a pleasure this morning.
Founder of Mishka Premium Vodka.
Yes, I just found a master.
Yeah, I am the Master's Stiller, Master Stiller of Mishka Premium Vodka. The company's name is This Life Forever. Something that I've held on to for a very long time. It's been kind of kind of my thing as far as just the way of life and also just being able to make sure that I could just promote.
Good values, community based. We are alcohol driven, but we make award.
Winning spirits and we try to figure out the best ways to be able to give back to the community and work in the community.
Now you're distill a reason in Pennsylvania, Allentown. That was the day this weekend. Yeah, yeah, got like what fifteen fourteen inches of snow.
DJ yep, it was it was pretty nastics to the brothers.
So let me ask you how you got How did you get into liqum? Most people start off ether buying or selling marketing, but you actually learned how to make it.
So I started off in amateur wine making, and I learned how to make.
While I was in Stat nine.
Living in Stat nine, I learned how to make wine in the garage from.
Italians moonshine call it you was making that.
It definitely wasn't legal at the time.
But at the end of the day, I did, you know, kind of homing on my craft. I was finishing up my nursing degree and I just want to switch. And I say, hey, you know what, like I want to make a little.
Bit more of an impact.
And the only way to make impact is what financially impact things in order to be able to change things. So with alcohol being a multi you know, trillion dollar market, it's it was kind of the obvious. Seven years in wine making amateur, won some awards, got my license, so it wasn't actually illegal anymore. Right, I was no longer selling selling product my sparkling one out of the back of my Mercedes, and my mom helped me actually just legitimize everything and get my license together.
How difficult was it to get your license?
Very difficult.
Again, you know, my mom just having just a bunch of like city work experience, and she was diligent on the paperwork. I was diligent on the marketing, and then you know, obviously now I learned all the paperwork and then so but difficult process.
They ask a lot.
You know, your partner is either the state and the federal government, but always the federal government first. And you guys kind of know how the federal government is. You know, it could be a difficult process. And we didn't use any lawyers, so we didn't use a lawyer to be
able to put the paperwork through for us. Normally you're gonna, you know, pay a lawyer roughly about fifty to one hundred thousand dollars just to be able to put a paperwork through in order to be able to manufacture alcohol, because there's a difference obviously and making a brand, owning a brand and then actually manufacturing the alcohol and being able to make sure that you have all the regulatory things that are in place.
So when you used to make your own wine, you had your grapes and what was in the tub with.
Right in the barrels, plastic barrels.
From went from crushing the grapes, then realizing that I could actually buy the juice already crushed, and then we started to scale. We were doing everything from NFL events, a bunch of different events. But you know, it's an industry, and it's not a lot of us in the industry. So the larger that I got, you know, the way my supplies were squeezing my you know, my margins just a little bit. Because in Pennsylvania, you don't you know,
you normally don't have a vineyard. It's a cold state, so you know, you would either get your grapes or you get your juice from somewhere else, and then you fermert the wine and then you would actually bring it to bottle and from my bottling side of it to my grapes. And then suddenly started to squeeze me out, and uh, my finishing up my last year, just before I went to my nursing, like my nurse, my nursing like pre clinicals and my clinicals.
I decided that I had enough, and I thought that I had.
A good foothold just within the wine industry and I kind of had a little bit of brand awareness and had some you know, industry experience, knowing that you know behind music, fashion, but also at the same time.
Alcohol, that's what's gonna drive the party at the end of the day.
So I wanted to make sure that I kind of got into that and me surviving and having a license in UH in the state in the Commonwealth UH based on wine. They weren't even doing dual distillery license. So I had one of the first three dual distillery license dual winery and distillery license in the Commonwealth UH. And then I started doing vodka. I met my wife, my now wife. I was Ukrainian and I learned how to make up. I learn how to make.
Vodka in the garage from Ukrainians.
So battalions with the wine, Ukrainians with the with the vodka, and I'm here.
Well, congrats on They said, you're the most awarded black owned spirits brand in the country.
That is a fact.
Break that down what those awards look like.
So so the oldest Wana spirits competition in the world is the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. We're the only black owned spirit with a double goal double gold this one gold, this one, multiple silvers with these, so you know, and we just just continue to get better.
So you know, you take.
A brand like something that's more famous, you know, like an uncle Nearest, Our uncle nearest.
They've won multiple awards.
They are one of the top, you know, awarded Whiskies.
But at the same time, we've been getting.
Awards since twenty sixteen when I first actually dropped Mesha Honey.
The awards in the liquor business mean anything. And the reason I asked that is, you know, I had all the time that this one gets an award, this one gets an award, But it always seems like regardless of the awards, it's brand recognition is what people buy, right, especially when you're dealing with, you know, people in the industry, they just want what's the dopest thing, which is sad
sometimes because they could be drinking shit. But the ones with the awards, nobody's necessarily nobody knows cater.
Right until you get a platform like this, which again, you know, I'm thankful in a way because it kind of sheds light because I chose not to go with celebrity endorsements.
We are just a real story. This is my life. I've been in this business for fifteen years.
We might not make you know what someone else makes, but it's similar to remaining independent. I own my manufacturing, I own ninety four percent of the company something like that. And from an award standpoint of it, So the San Francisco World Spirits competition is a blind tasting, so you're not buying that. So getting a double goal is like getting a Grammy in the industry as far as for us. So when someone says that, whether it be Somalier or whether it be somebody at the top of the food chain,
who's a major buyer, they want to know. And then the first thing they ask is can I see that print it? And obviously we have those things printed. So it works for who we're feeding, which is the buyer, but you know, it works a little bit different obviously when it comes down to the recognition amongst the quote unquote common.
People, why not do any celebrity in dodorship because we've seen so many other people do it, you know, of course, so Rock with Diddy or Casta Migos with George Clooney, Like, why did you say, you know what?
I don't want to go that route because you know, when you take when you take both of those situations right, one it worked very very well. Billions were made, right, that's well cast some ego's on that side. But also as far as with I mean pufflicly, you know, I mean he took it to billions of dollars. But also at the same time, look at the parallels of what, you know, what the situation ended up.
One thing could be a car crash.
The other thing could be you know, it could be success and get out of the game.
Uh So for us, it's.
It's kind of like a blended of a Tito's route. You got to think about it, right, Tito's owns, you know, I mean, he owns.
The Voka market.
Right, twenty five years that they've been in business, it's Tito's period.
I feel like they came out of nowhere too.
But they didn't though they but they did right in general public. But in the industry we knew exactly what it was. So I started to kind of just track what we were doing and kind of just keep those parallels there because at the end of the day, this is generational wealth. I'm not looking for a quick sell in the company. What I actually did was I end up taking the company public on start Engine just to be able to give it to people that were like
me who don't understand the industry. I mean, Tito's did one point four billion dollars from twenty two to twenty three.
They paid roughly about four hundred and sixty.
Eight million dollars in operational fees and operational.
Costs with no celebrity endorsements, nothing.
Just quality of product and going to a domestic aspect of it. Now, one thing that does set you know, companies apart, is what.
What are your what's your relationship value?
Right?
So our relationship value is based on people who can connect us with, you know, folks like you guys, but also at the same time who can place us with corporations uh, such as the Arramarks, such as the Marriotte, such as the Hilton.
Uh.
These are corporate placements that we have. Will be in Disney properties, come in may.
You very much. I appreciate it.
Now.
Even though that you get in these properties, and you get in these restaurants, and you get into these establishments, it's also people have to actually want the product or not only that the businesses have to push the product. Now, how do you fight through that?
So that goes back to the quality of the product and the reason why I made the product. Used to be a big fan of graand Maier, right, so loved the Grand Mane for a good portion of my life, and I wanted to be able to create something that kind of kind of top Grand Magne, Right, So I started working on a honey vodka. Now, when you take the base of our products, the products are all natural, the products are gluten free, there's no added sugars, there's
no added coloring into it. It's a quality product, and it's a flavor product that ends off at eighty proof. Right, normal flavor products they normally finish up roughly about seventy proof. So what we've done is we've made almost a cocktail in the bottle. So instead of doing five parts in the cocktail, which is what dehydrates you, gives you that sugar rush gives you that that taste in the back of your mouth in the morning, gives you the headache, we've kind of taken that.
Go ahead.
Man, I'm just like.
You're looking at your eyes and was like that taste in the of your mouth and the.
Meaning that again, So what we what we did was we completed it by making sure that you can only add you do only need two parts as.
Far as in the contail.
So that's advantageous to a lot of these restaurants, these corporate partners, because now they're saving on the cocktail juice, right, they're saving on that mixture, the simple syrup. Uh. We just try to just kind of just dumb it down, but also be able to make it, you know, to where there's value in it.
Also, well, what is it about the honey flavor? I you've heard about the honey fleet? Was that the one in the middle, the honey flavor? What about this one that makes it stand up?
There's no honey flavored.
Vodka on the market that has the test of time.
But that right there is the product that I created.
First.
I didn't want to just go all the way on the Tito's model, so I went with something that was exclusive to me first and UH and that's that's been the hit, that's our flagship. UH.
And then we bought out.
Then we then then I went to the to the unflavored, which is also gluten free and kosher UH. And then I went to UH to cranberry and now in the spring of the summer. We'll be really he's seeing Mango and Passion.
And yeah, you hooked up with the NBA too, right in the seventy.
Six Yes, seventy six is. I've done multiple spots with the seventy six is. It looks like via Ara Mark will be programming in Wells Fargust Center coming for the next season. That'll be coming, which would be pretty cool. Again, relationships, you know, doing good in the community. We do a bunch of just a bunch of stuff. As you mentioned you were in Allentown. You know, I sit on every
single board, diversity board. I just try to just do the best thing that I could possibly do it from the community standpoint.
Ever, now, is it profitable?
Oh yeah, Like I said, you know, it's just like owning your masters and being an independent you know, so instead of my margins getting chopped out, our own distribution and as a company, we owned distribution not only in Pennsylvania, but we also own distribution in New Jersey.
So question, so, why was it so difficult for Diddy? Didn't when he had his own tequil it and it seems like he couldn't get distribution, He couldn't do it himself. He was We've seen videos of him going liquor store to liquor store, and it seemed like stores really didn't want the product, right, because it was no distribution connected to it. Why is it so difficult for people to get their foot in the door, especially with him, because you figured, like with him, it wouldn't be a problem
because he's Diddy. And this was before the as you said, car crash.
Right, So we're legitimately less than one percent of the market, right, just being minorities, right, We're legitimately less than one percent in the market. So again, it's the difference between what baggage you're carrying, right, versus Okay, here's the story of quality, right, here's what our lineage is, Here's who our star face is, and that's got to be the way people get connected.
I'm not saying you know obviously you know that that people didn't want to be connected to Diddy, But there's the Diddy angle and then there's the product.
It's you and you got to be able to have that separate.
I always believe that if you're gonna take the product just because of the fact that I've got a celebrity, how many times, are.
You gonna buy that after the fact, you know, proposed quality. It's always about the the you know, the value proposition.
Got you and you're uh, you're you're connected with like music Fest.
Two music Fest, so we we are now so music Fest is uh, we need you to come out there and should come into Allantown. So we connected with music Fest roughly about about two three years ago. Became a small sponsor, blew it out of the water. The next year we removed another vodka sponsor that was there, got them out of there.
Then it was us and Jack Dan's for the main stage, and then this.
Year will will be with the with the partner the I don't think that we can say exclusive legally, but we are the partner that's programming all of the vodka for North and South Side. Music Fest does one point three million people a year, which is which is an excellent opportunity obviously to get liquids and lips.
How did that help the brand?
Was that your question?
No, that was just crazy, A great way to get liquid to lips.
We trademarked that.
The reason right, but we trademarked that because that's been our model. We want to be able to get liquid to lips in order to be able for people we feel like we can win after hands.
Down all the way around by doing that.
How did that help the brand? Is it just eyeballs?
So not only that, but we have tasting opportunities, which is great, which allows people, you know, music Fest draws people from the twenty thirty countries, you know, and naturally and being able to get those sampling opportunities, being able to get people to actually, you know, not only just the brand side of it, but also at the same time understand exactly who we are, be able to get a little bit of a little knowledge that actually pushes
it forward, but also again you know, appropriate really getting liquid to lips.
You know what's interesting, I feel like there's so many people getting it right, so many black people getting it right in the in.
The spirit business. But it's usually the people who aren't relying on celebrity. It's think about up nerds when I look at what y'all doing, you know what I mean?
But y'all, it's real work. And that's where you that question that you asked, why is this so hard?
Right?
Because on the back end with a minority, right, with.
The super minority so the people who are the majority, they're controlling this, and they've been controlling this for a very long time.
So if someone's gonna let you in.
To their exclusive club, they kind of want to know that you're going to do the work that's going to back that up. So to your point, you know, saying that the people who are finding success are the people who are actually not taking a celebrity route black people who are finding success.
That's the primary difference.
The primary difference is we're getting in front of these distributors and saying, hey, look, you know, I want you to take my product, and here's my capacity. It was difficult for anybody to even give me a meeting, you know, I would say before the pandemic, Before the pandemic, we were trying to get into different places. We were obviously owning our distribution in the state of Pennsylvania, but at
the same time, nobody wanted to hear us. You know, right after the pandemic we won our first double goal. You know, during the pandemic or right before the pandemic, we won our first goal. Then we became the largest craft distillery to produce hand sanitizer. I mean, we made you know, We made a bunk of money just doing that. I dumped all the money back into the company, but we fed everything from frontline workers with meals. We we
donated tons of hand sanitizer to our local hospitals. We sold a bunch of hand sanitizers to FedEx ups, the post office, Comcast, and like again, that started getting us media attention. With that media attention, you know, I took it and we ran with it, and you know, and now we're here at this point.
So and I feel like it's something like the products to sell itself, right, Like I think, you know, with Sarak, it was something that people liked.
The culture gravitator towards it.
True, they didn't necessarily gravitate towards their leon, right Castle Migos. People likeds like like you can just a lot of these things you can just see organically.
Like I didn't know who was behind Tetos. I'm just like, it's.
Teetos everywhere everywhere, so clearly people just like it. Right, So it's like it no't matter what celebrity you are. If people don't like it, they don't like it.
So I think it also in marketing too, because even with vodka, if you have to go to a bar or a club or even in the lobby, a lot of people just say, let me get a Voka cranberry, let me get a Voka sprite, or let me get a vodka thing.
So it also plays in.
Your relationship with a lot of these businesses and restaurants because you want to make sure when they're asking for a vodka cranberry that that yours is there, Yours is the one, that's the one.
But hence you notice how you went to that most poor cocktail in the world, vodka cranberry. So when you take a vodka Amishka vodka cranberry, now you just added sold on to.
You gotta mix it, you gotta shake it.
No, it's just no, it's it's clean, it's clear.
Yeah, we appreciate it.
And you got a partnership with Lee High Valley Children's Hospital.
Yes, how the hell did that work? So we're not giving the.
Okay, but what we are but we are basically trading the sales for cocktails and it's going back into our local children's hospital.
So that's a blessing.
Yeah, well man, how do how do we support Michiga?
I mean, look, we've got multiple ways.
Our website is Mishka Premium Vodka dot com.
We're still again.
Like I said, we we kind of gave public offering just to be able to get folks like us involved. But also at the same time at drink Mishka is our handles across social media, so all those things are good ways to be able to kind of plug in and play for us.
All right, well, we appreciate you for joining us. Russell Fletcher, founder of Michka Premium Vodka, Thank you, brother.
Thank you.
I appreciate you.
Guys. It's the breakfast clog, good morning wake that as up in the morning breakfast club